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The Latest Phase of the Southern Ute 
Question. 



A Eeport by Francis E. Leupp, Washington Agent of 
THE Indian Rights Association. 

The history of the Southern Ute tribe of Indians up to 
the beginning of the present year is too familiar to the 
members of the Indian Eights Association to call for re- 
cital in detail, but a reference to some of its most salient 
features is necessary to make this report self-consistent 
and complete. 

The reservation on which the tribe is now living is a 
rectangle of territory in Colorado, bounded on the east by 
the 107th meridian of longitude, on the south by the north- 
ern line of New Mexico, on the west by the western line 
of Colorado, and on the north by a line running parallel to 
the southern boundary and 15 miles distant from it. The 
dimensions of the reservation are 110 miles from east to 
west and 15 miles from north to south, and its area about 
1,100,000 acres. 

A treaty made in 1868 gave the Ute nation as a whole a 
reservation very much larger and more conveniently 
shaped; but the discovery of valuable mineral deposits in 
what is known as the San Juan mining region led to the 
negotiation of a new treaty in 1873, whereby the Indians 
consented to cede to the Government all that part of the 
reservation which the whites then coveted. The narrow 
strip of territory on the southernmost border, on which the 
three bands composing the Southern Ute tribe — the Wee- 
minuches, Moaches and Capotes — were already living 
was among the land retained. 

The Meeker massacre occurred at the White River 



agency iu 1879, and a commission was appointed in 1880 to 
arrange for the removal of the White River Utes to Utah, 
and for the settlement of the Uncompahgres and South- 
ern Utes in severalty in Colorado on lands along the Grand 
and La Plata rivers respectively. While the selection of 
lands under this agreement was in progress, a race colli- 
sion occurred which threatened serious consequences, and 
the Indian Bureau decided upon the immediate removal of 
all the Ute nation except the Southern Utes to Utah. The 
work of making allotments was suspended indefinitely, and 
the Southern Utes were left on their long and narrow re- 
servation, surrovinded on all sides by white settlements, 
cut off from their own kindred by many miles of interven- 
ing territory, and having for their nearest Indian neigh- 
bors the friendly but more civilized Navajos. 

But, although the Southern Utes were disposed to be 
peaceful, and although their reservation was so hemmed 
in that they could not, if they wished, make much trouble 
for their white neighbors, the citizens of Colorado were re- 
solved to get rid of them altogether. To this end legisla- 
tion was procured from Congress for the removal of the 
whole tribe to a reservation in Utah, and another Govern- 
ment commission was appointed in 1888 to obtain their 
consent to the change. The members of this body had 
been led to believe, before going to Colorado, that thej-^ 
would find their task an easy one ; to their surprise, how- 
ever, the Indians at first showed no disposition to move ; 
and it was only after spending four months among them, 
holding frequent conferences and exhausting the argu- 
ments in favor of their accepting the Government's pro- 
posals, that the Childs Commission — so called in honor of 
its secretary, the Rev. T. S. Childs — returned to Washing- 
ton bearing an agreement with the requisite number of 
signatures appended and ready for final ratification by 
Congress. 

Perhaps it would be safe to say that no negotiation ever 
attempted with a tribe of Indians has given rise to so much 
public discussion as this. Certainly none of which the 



present writer has any knowledge has furnished the self- 
seeking whites with more opportunities for villification 
and abuse of the Indians' disinterested friends. Mj^ pre- 
decessor, the lamented Charles C. Painter, visited the pro- 
posed new reservation in Utah and reported adversely on 
its merits as a home for Indians who were to be educated 
for citizenship through the pursuit of agriculture. A com- 
mittee of two members of the Indian Eights Association, 
Messrs. Francis Fisher Kane and Frank M. Riter, later made 
a special journey through the very heart of the proposed 
reservation, and reported against it yet more emphati- 
cally if possible. Meanwhile, the projectors of the scheme 
for ousting the Indians from Colorado were describing it 
everywhere as an ideal site for the purpose for which it 
was designed. Part of these gentry professed to find a 
sufficient reason for the adverse reports in the bribery of 
the several traveling representatives of the Association, 
and in the corruption of its home staff of officers by 
munificent contributions to its treasury from a corpo- 
ration which was then grazing cattle upon the public land 
offered to the Indians, and which was willing to buy off" 
this threatened intrusion upon its squatter domain. Such 
charges are, of course, too contemptible for serious notice. 
Another class of special pleaders took more moderate 
ground, and assumed that everybody connected with the 
Indian Rights Association had been honestlj^ misled. Both 
Mr. Painter and the committee, they argued, had fallen 
into the hands of guides hostile to the plan of removal, 
and been carried only over parts of the proposed reserva- 
tion which would be sure to impress them unfavorably. 
Admitting the possibility of this, the argument suggests 
its own answer. It was the business of all three gentle- 
men to discover, not how much might be said in favor of 
the project — for it had passed the stage where outside ad- 
vocacy could add anything to its momentum — but whether 
there were any good reasons why the bargain between the 
Government and the Indians should not be consummated 
after so much time, trouble and money had been expended 



6 

in bringing it to definite terms. That the objections visible 
on such journeys as they took were sufficient to convince 
these high-minded and intelligent men of the practical 
unwisdom of the plan for removal, cuts off inquiry as to 
how much of the country they saw. It is plain that they 
saw enough of the bad to neutralize the effect of such good 
specimens as might have been skillfully insinuated into 
their field of view if they had given themselves over to 
the guidance of parties interested in influencing them in 
favor of the scheme. In such a country, and under such 
conditions as then obtained, all men are partisans; if the 
seeker for truth is convinced by one side, no matter which 
side it may be, the champions of the other are bound to 
depreciate his judgment or assail his motives. 

Setting aside, therefore, all controverted points as to 
the character of the land in the proposed reservation in 
Utah, the sufficiency of the water, and the other features 
immediately related to the possibilities of agriculture, 
there still remains one reason for the stand taken, and 
successfullj^ maintained, by the Indian Rights Association 
against the ratification of the Childs Commission's treaty^ 
which abundantly proves its fundamental soundness. Mr 
Painter was at first suspicious of the meaning of the sudden 
change of mind among the Indians which turned their 
stubborn opposition into apparently hearty consent. In 
order to satisfy himself as to the genuineness of their con- 
version, he held a number of private conferences with 
leading men in the tribe, and discovered that they had 
been won over by a representation that in their new 
quarters they would be practically out of reach of the 
whites and could do pretty nearly what they pleased 
without even the moral restraint of being watched, and 
that the Blue and Elk Mountains of Utah were full of 
game which they could hunt at will. Both these state- 
ments were unexceptionable in point of truth. Indeed, it 
was because they were irrefutable that they were most 
dangerous as enticements, for they pointed backward and 
not forward, downward and not upward — toward the re- 



lapse of the tribe from its first tentative steps in civilization 
and not toward its further progress up the scale. It was a 
pitiful fact that even those Indians who had begun to 
make some crude efforts for self-support had yielded to the 
allurement of a promise of social isolation and the excite- 
ment of the chase. That discovery settled in Mr. Painter's 
mind the course he should pursue. His duty pointed only 
one way, and in that direction he set his face, addressing 
all the energies of his forceful nature to the defeat of the 
removal plot, with a success which has become historic. 

THE HUNTEE BILL. 

The first failure did not discourage the conspirators. 
They took a fresh breath, and went at their work again. 
To their persistent agitation of the removal project must 
be given the credit of keeping Congress reminded of the 
existence of an unsettled Southern Ute question, and 
probably a desire to get this question out of the way for- 
ever was the prime incentive to the drafting of what was 
known as the Hunter bill — H. R. 6792 — introduced in the 
second session of the Fifty-third Congress. I say " prob- 
ably " because the origin of the bill seems to be shrouded 
in mystery. A widespread supposition in Washington is 
that it was drawn by a citizen of Southwestern Colorado. 
In Southwestern Colorado this suspicion is resented, and 
persons there who assume to speak with the highest 
authority have informed me that it was drawn by Andrew 
J. Hunter, a Representative-at-Large in the last Congress 
from the State of Illinois. Mr. Hunter, however, denies 
that he drew the bill or even knows who did dr^w it; he 
says that it had its birth in the House of Representatives 
Committee on Indian Affairs, of which he was a member, 
and that he was instructed by the committee to introduce 
it. 

The original title to the bill described its purpose as 
^'To disapprove the treaty heretofore made with the 
Southern Ute Indians to be removed to the Territory of 
Utah, and providing for settling them down in severalty 



where they may so elect and are qualified, and to settle all 
those not electing to take lands in severaltj^ on the west 
forty miles of present reservation and in portions of New 
Mexico, and for other purposes." To this was added later 
the clause : " And to carry out the provisions of the treaty 
with said Indians June 15, 1880." 

In order that the reader may see at a glance the changes 
through which the Hunter bill passed on its course from 
introduction to enactment — some of them being very sig- 
nificant — I have prepared the following transcript, show- 
ing in plain type those parts of the original text of the bill 
which survived and became law, between bra'ckets and in 
italics those parts which were stricken out, and in small 
capitals the additions made by amendment in the one or 
the other House of Congress: 

Be it enacted, etc., That the agreement made bj' J. 
Montgomery Smith, Thomas S. Childs and R. B. Weaver, 
commissioners ou the part of the United States, with the 
Southern Ute Indians of Colorado, bearing date November 
thirteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight, be and the 
same is hereby \jiUapprove.cl andl^ annulled, and the treaty 

MADE WITH SAID INDIANS JUNE FIFTEENTH, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED 
AND EIGHTY, BE CARRIED OUT AS HEREIN PROVIDED, AND AS 
FURTHER PROVIDED BY GENERAL LAW FOR SETTLING INDIANS IN 
SEVERALTY. 

Sec. 2. That within [_ninet(/ dai/s'] six months after the 
passage of this act the Secretar}' of the Interior shall cause 
allotment of land, in severalty, to be made to such of the 
Southern Ute Indians in Colorado as maj' elect and be con- 
sidered b}^ him qualified to take the same out of the agri- 
cultural lands embraced in their present reservation in 
Colorado, such allotments to be made in accordance with 
the provisions of the Act of Congress approved \_February 
eigJit/i, eighteen hundred and eighhj-aeven'l June fifteenth, 
EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY, entitled '' An act to ^jroDW'e 
fo7- the allvtmenl of landa in severalfi/ to Indians on the vario^is 
reservations and to extend the protection of the laws of the 
United States and the Territories over the Indians, and for 
other purjaosf?s] accept and ratify the agreement sub- 
mitted BY the confederated BANDS OF UtE InDIANS IN 

Colorado for the sale of their reservation in that State, 
and for other purposes, and to make the necessary 



9 

APPROPRIATIONS FOR CARRYING OUT THE SAME, AND THE 
AMENDMENTS THERETO, AS FAR AS APPLICABLE HERETO, and the 

treaties heretofore made with said Indians: Provided, that 
Indians taking allotments as herein provided shall 

RETAIN their INTEREST IN ALL TRIBAL PROPERTY. 

Sec. 3. That for the sole and exclusive use and occupancy 
of such of said Indians as may not elect or be deemed 
qualified to take allotments of land in severalty, as pro- 
vided in the preceding section, there shall be, and is 
hereby, set apart and reserved all that portion of their 
present reservation lying west of the range line between 
ranges thirteen and fourteen west of the New Mexico 
principal meridian, and also all of townships thirty-one 
and thirty-two of ranges fourteen, fifteen and sixteen west 
of the New Mexico principal meridian and lying in the 
Territory of New Mexico, subject, however, to the right 
of the Government to erect and maintain agency build- 
ings thereon and to grant rights of way through the same 
for railroads, irrigation ditches, highways and other 
necessary purposes; and the Government shall maintain 
an agency at some suitable place on said lands so reserved. 

Sec. 4. That at the expiration of \jiinety days'] six 
MONTHS from the passage of this act the President of the 
United States shall issue his proclamation declaring the 
lands embraced within the present reservation of said In- 
dians, except such portions as may have been alloted or 
reserved under the provisions of the preceding sections of 
this Act, open to occupancy and settlement, and thereupon 
said lands shall be and become a part of the public do- 
main of the United States, and shall be subject to entry 
under the desert, homestead, and townsite laws and the 
laws governing the disposal of coal, mineral, stone, and 
timber lands; but no homestead settler shall receive a title 
to any portion of such lands at less than one dollar and 
twenty-five cents per acre, and shall be required to make 

A cash payment of fifty cents PER ACRE AT THE TIME FILING 

IS MADE UPON ANY OF SAID LANDS: Providcd, That before said 
lands shall be opened to public settlement the Secretary of 
the Interior shall cause the improvements belonging to the 
Indians on the lands now occupied by them to be appraised 
and sold at public sale to the highest bidder ; except im- 
provements on lands allotted to the Indians in accordance 
with the provisions of this Act. No sale of such improve- 
ments shall be made for less than the appraised value, and 
the several purchasers of said improvements shall, for 



10 

thirty days after the issuance of the President's proclama- 
tion, have the preference right of entry of the lands upon 
which the improvements purchased by him are situated: 
Provided further, That the said purchase shall not exceed 
one hundred and sixty acres: And provided further. That 
the proceeds of the sale of sucli improvements shall be 
paid to the Indians owning the same. 

Sec. 5. That out of the moneys first realized from the sale 
of said lands so opened up to public settlement there shall 
be paid to said Indians the sum of fifty thousand dollars, 
as follows: \_te))'\ five thousand dollars annually for [^//fe] 
TEN years, and. when paid, the money to be equalh^ divided 
among all of said Indians per capita, irrespective of age 
or sex; also the sum of twentj^ thousand dollars of said 
proceeds shall be paid to the Secretary of the Interior, 
who shall invest the same in sheep and divide the said 
sheep among the said Indians per capita equally, irre- 
spective of age or sex; also to Ignacio, head chief; to 
Buckskin Charlie, as chief of the Moaches, and Mariano, 
as chief of the Weeminuches, the sum of five hundred 
dollars each ; also to Tapucke and Tabewatch, as chiefs of 
the Capotes, the sum of two hundred and fift}' dollars 
each ; that the balance of the monej^ realized from the sale 
of lands, after deducting expenses of sale and survey, 
shall be held in the Treasury of the United States in trust 
for the sole use and benefit of said Southern Ute Indians. 
^The Secretary of the Interior may in his discretion cause to 
be paid any or all of the above sums of money out of the 
trust fund noiv held for said Indians by the Government, and 
shall cause the same to be rejylaced from the proceeds of the 
sale of said lands to be opened for settlement.^ That noth- 
ing HEREIN PROVIDED SHALL IN ANY MANNER BE CONSTRUED 

to change or interfere with the rights of said indians 
under any other existing treaty regarding any annui- 
ties or trust funds or the interest thereon. 

Sec. 6. That the foregoing provisions of this Act 

SHALL take effect ONLY UPON THE ACCEPTANCE THEREOF AND 

consent thereto by a majority of all the male adult 
Indians now located or residing upon the reservation, 

WHICH acceptance SHALL BE AT ONCE OBTAINED UNDER SUCH 
regulations AS THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR MAY PRE- 
SCRIBE. 

TACTICS PURSUED. 

In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is 
only fair to assume that the authors of the bill had a 



11 

humane end in view in trying thus to settle finally the 
whole vexed question of the disposal of the Southern Utes. 
When these Indians were taken to Colorado from the 
Cimarron country in New Mexico, where they first passed 
under the dominion of the United States Government, 
they were told by the federal agents who superintended 
their removal that they were to occupy their new home 
forever. The series of negotiations initiated by the Gov- 
ernment at irregular intervals, and concluding with the 
visit of the Childs Commission in 1888, all had for their 
aim some disturbance of existing conditions. The Indians 
opposed each suggestion of change. But when the at- 
tractive arguments of the Childs Commission and all the 
combined forces of local influence exerted from Durango 
at last won them over to the idea of removal into Utah, 
Congress, with an awakened conscience, properly refused 
to consummate the bad bargain it had set on foot. All 
these events necessarily kept the Indians in a state of un- 
rest. Those who had begun to take a little interest in the 
arts of civilization suspended further attempts at self- 
improvement till it could be ascertained what Congress 
was going to do. Of those who had not, few were ven- 
turesome enough to begin. The Indian Bureau felt that 
its hands were tied till something definite had been done, 
because any efforts it might make for the permanent ben- 
efit of the tribe were liable to be suddenly brought to 
nought by the passage of an act to ratify the treaty of 
1888 ; hence it did nothing toward starting reservation 
schools. Of course, such a paralysis was fatal to the in- 
terest of the Indians from every point of view. With no 
incentive to work, and no place to hunt, they would be 
idle ; and idleness was even more to be dreaded, if pos- 
sible, than a return to primitive methods of procuring 
subsistence, for it meant absolute dependence on Govern- 
ment rations, or, in other words, complete pauperization. 
To take the Indian from the wild life in which at least 
some manly traits were fostered in him by facing danger 
and enduring privation, force him to adapt himself to a 



12 

civilization which reversed every principle and theory in- 
herited from his ancestors and then leave him without a 
helping hand is a cruel wrong; and it is this inhumane 
treatment which the Southern Utes have suffered for the 
last seven years at least. 

However strong may have been the desire of the authors 
of the Hunter bill to end the Southern Ute agitation and 
enable the work of civilizing the Indians to be renewed^ 
they were powei-less to execute it till Durango had given 
its consent. The Senators from Colorado were unswerv- 
ingly loyal to the narrow local interests of their constitu- 
ents, and the rules of the Senate, including the unwritten 
rule of " courtesy," put it into the power of any pair of 
Senators to block local legislation to which their State 
objected. A number of prominent citizens of Durauga 
and its neighborhood visited AVashington while the bill 
was in its critical stage to consult with Senators Teller 
and Wolcott. One result of this was a request made of 
the Secretary of the Interior by the two Senators that he 
would write them a letter defining his attitude toward the 
proposed legislation. Their object seems plain enough^ 
in the light of more recent events. The merits or de- 
merits of the bill, from Durango's point of view, lay less in 
its terms than in the manner of its execution. The Sec- 
retary, owing to the large discretion vested in him, was in 
a position to further or defeat the plans of the Duranga 
delegation, and the thing to do now was to commit him to 
a definite policy : if the policy was satisfactory they could 
permit the bill to pass; if not, they could " hang it up " in 
the Senate till the expiration of the Congress, when it 
would die without coming to a vote. 

Senator Vilas of Wisconsin, having been Secretary of 
the Interior for the latter half of President Cleveland's 
first administration, and having been an earnest advocate of 
the Utah removal plan, had studied many of the phases 
of the Southern Ute question quite as thoroughly as the 
Colorado Senators, and understood them quite as well. He 
observed that, whereas the consummation of former agree- 



13 

ments had been made by law dependent on the consent of 
three-fourths of the adult male members of the tribe, the 
present bill, as it passed the House of Representatives, 
ignored any necessity for consulting the wishes of the 
Indians at all. Therefore, for reasons which will appear 
later, he introduced an amendment making the cession of 
the eastern end of the reservation dependent upon the 
consent of " a majority of all the adult male Indians now 
located or residing upon that portion of the reservation." 
The Secretary of the Interior, assuming in good faith 
that the only question before him was whether in his 
judgment, the pending bill ought or ought not to be 
enacted into law, called upon Mr. Pollock, chief of the 
Indian division in his office, for such a report on the con- 
dition of the Southern Utes as could be prepared from the 
data on his files, and, on receiving it, sent the following 
communication to the Senators from Colorado : 

Hon. H. M. Teller-, Hon. E. 0. Wolcott, United States Senate. 

Sirs : 

In compliance with your oral request, I have caused 
an examiuation to be made of H. R. 6792 and of the pro- 
posed amendments offered by Senator Vilas. 

Enclosed you will find a copy of a i-eport made upon 
this subject by the Chief of the Indian Division. 

I have also considered the subject carefully myself. The 
failure of these Indians to make better progress has been 
largely due to the uncertainty which has existed on their 
part, as to what disposition Congress would make of tho 
treaty which contemplated their removal to Utah. 

The statistical information contained in the report of 
the Chief of the Indian Division is based upon detailed 
statements furnished to the Indian Office by special agents, 
and also upon a recent report to the Department by the 
agent now in charge. 

AVith the Indians in the condition shown, I cannot be- 
lieve it is wise to undertake an allotment of land to them 
in severalty. I am of the opinion that Congress should 
definitely decide to leave the Indians where they are, and 
let the subject rest there for twelve months longer, during 
which time it will be determined what progress can be 
made with the Indians no longer doubtful as to where their 
future homes are to be located. 



14 

In the view which I have expressed, the Commissioner 
of Indian Affairs concurs. 

Very respectfully, 

HOKE SMITH, 

Secretary. 

MEMORANDUM. 

Mr. Secretary: 

I find the condition of the Southern Ute Indians about 
as follows: 

The reservation is occupied by the following bands: 

Capote Ute, 190 

Moache Ute, 273 

Weerainuche Ute 553 



1,016 



Nearly all of these Indians are in the blanket and legging 
stage, only one wearing citizen's dress wholly and ten 
partly. One can read English. Three can speak English 
well enough for ordinar^^ conversation. 

There are 27 dwelling houses on the reservation oc- 
cupied by Indians, and these are occupied by the few (30) 
who are engaged in farming. The others live almost 
wholly in lodges and tepees. 

Nine of the men a»e now living in a state of polygamy. 

Ten per cent, of these Indians obtain their subsistence 
by labor in civilized pursuits; forty per cent, by hunting, 
fishing, root-gathering, etc., and fifty per cent, by the issue 
of Governnifcui rations. 

Thc/y liave 425 acres under fence: they own 5,500 ponies 
and 50 mules; 50 cattle and 5.000 sheep and goats; 130 
domestic fowls. 

In view of this condition I doubt very much the advisa- 
bility of any legislation which will place them outside the 
protecting lines of the reservation and force them into 
competition with the whites in efforts to secure the means 
of existence. 

It is clear that few, if any, are prepared to take an allot- 
ment in the eastern part of their present reservation as 
contemplated both by House bill 6792 and the amendments 
proposed thereto by the Senate. If the bill as it passed 
the House should finally become a law its effect would be 
to concentrate these Indians upon the diminished reserve. 
If this is to be done the better plan in my opinion would 
be to negotiate with them for the cession of the eastern 



15 

part of their reservation outright, leaving entirely out of 
the question allotments therein. 

The House bill has several objectionable features. It does 
not provide for obtaining the consent of the Indians to the 
sale of that part of their lands contemplated to be sold; it 
requires allotments to be made within ninety days after 
the passage of the act, and it does not definitely fix the 
price at which the different classes of lands shall be sold, 
making simpl^'^ a minimum price for all, whether thej'^ be 
agricultural, desert, coal, mineral, stone or timber lands. 

This certainly should not be enacted as a law in its 
present shape. 

The amendments proposed in the Senate meet some of 
the objections noted above. These amendments, however, 
provide that the cession of the eastern portion of the re- 
servation may be made "upon the consent thereto by a 
majority of all the adult male Indians now located or res- 
iding upon that portion of the reservation." This is in 
my opinion wrong. The reservation is held in common by 
the Indians, and those upon the western portion have just 
the same interest in the eastern part as those who reside 
there. It should provide for the consent of all the Indians. 

The same objection applies to section 6. It provides 
that this act shall be submitted for ratification by a ma- 
jority of the adult male Indians located or residing upon 
the eastern portion of the reservation. 

Very respectfully, 

W. C. POLLOCK, 
Chief Indian Division. 

THE BILL PASSED. 

It must be plain to any intelligent reader of the Secre- 
tary's letter in the light of all the incidental facts, that 
his purpose was to state simply that he did not favor the 
proposed legislation, but preferred to substitute for the 
bill as it stood some kind of guaranty by Congress that the 
Indians should be left undisturbed for the present, so as to 
justify him in putting into operation his plans for their 
permanent improvement. This could have been accomp- 
lished by striking out everything in the title after the word 
"Utah," and everything in the bill after the woi'd " an- 
nulled " in the first section. But the Durango delegation 



16 

had other plans. Jumping to the unwarrantable conclu- 
sion that the Secretar}^ had committed himself not to allot 
land to the Indians on the east end of the reservation who 
would be ousted if the bill should be enacted into law, they 
approved the proposed legislation with such modifications 
as Mr. Pollock had suggested, including, of course, the de- 
feat of the Vilas amendment submitting the question of 
the cession of the east end of the reservation to the In- 
dians then occupjdng it. For this was substituted a pro- 
vision for the consent of "a majority of all male adult 
Indians now located or residing upon the reservation." 
The usual requirement of a three-fourths vote was thus 
exchanged for a bare majority, and that majority spread 
over practically the whole tribe; and the reason whj^ this 
was satisfactory to Durango will be understood by the 
reader when it is recalled that the Weeminuche band 
somewhat outnumbers the combined bands ofMoaches and 
Capotes, though not nearly in the proportion of three to 
one. The Weeminuche band contains the bulk of the un- 
progressive, nomadic, troublesome element in the tribe. 
To it belongs Ignacio, the chief of the whole tribe, who, 
though shrewd enough to realize that in peace with the 
whites lies the Indians only hope of escaping extermina- 
tion, is bitterly opposed to everything which points toward 
civilization. In his eyes labor is degradation, the school 
an enervating influence, and individual property or thrift 
a crime against the sacred traditions of his race. Mariano, 
the chief of the Weeminuche band, shares all Ignacio's 
stubborn conservatism, with a strain of ill-concealed ma- 
lignity toward the white people added; if change of some 
sort is inevitable, his one idea is to have it in the direction 
of a more hopeless vagrancy — the greatest luxury coupled 
with the least responsibility. With such leadership, it was 
safe to assume that the Weeminuches would vote for any- 
thing which would tend to keep them under savage as dis- 
tinguished from civilized influence. Moreover, they were 
already occupying the western end of the common reserva- 
tion, the very part which was marked by the bill for the 



17 

bulk of tlie new diminished reservation. By approving the 
bill, therefore, they would not be voting for their own dis- 
turbance; on the contrary, the bill provided for the estab- 
lishment of an agency on the new reservation, which meant 
that they would be saved a considerable journey in going 
after their rations, their per capita money and their police 
wages. For some time there has been an estrangement 
between this band and theMoache and Capote bands, who 
occupied the eastern end of the reservation and contained 
the progressive element in the tribe. The Moaches and 
and Capotes naturally would not wish to forsake such im- 
provements as they had made on the east end of the re- 
servation and take up their dwelling among a band op- 
posed to them in all respects. Such a course would hold 
-out a promise only of dissension and retrogression. It was 
his understanding of this situation which induced Senator 
Vilas to offer his amendment requiring a ratification of the 
act by the Indians residing on " that portion " of the res- 
•ervation which was to be ceded and thrown open. What- 
ever may be said of the technical right of the whole tribe 
to vote upon any question afiecting its common propert3% 
the moral right, in the instance under consideration, was 
clearly confined to those Indians whose ultimate fate, for 
good or ill, was going to be sealed by the verdict of a ma- 
jority of their number. 

In its amended shape the bill was passed, but was held 
by the President for several days under consideration, and 
then signed on February 20, 1895, only upon the assurance 
that no better legislation could be hoped for, and with a 
full understanding of the purpose of the Secretai-y of the 
Interior to execute the act strictly in the interest of the 
Indians. 

THE ACT ACCEPTED. 

The spring of 1895 found the Secretary faced with the 
following duties in respect to the Southern Utes : 

1. He was to ascertain whether "a majority of all the 
male adult Indians now (February 20) located or residing 



18 

upon the reservation accepted and consented to '' the act ; 
if they did so — 

2. He was to "cause allotment of land in severalty to 
be made to such of the Southern Ute Indians in Colorado 
as may elect and be considered by him qualified to take 
the same out of the agricultural lands embraced in their 
present reservation in Colorado" in accordance with the 
act of June 15, 1880, its admendments, '-and the treaties 
heretofore made with the said Indians;" and 

3. He was to remove those Indians who did not receive 
lands in severalty to the new diminished reservation. 

Meredith H. Kidd, who had lately retired from service 
on the Dawes Commission in Indian Territory, was ap- 
pointed special commissioner to the Southern Utes for the 
purposes of the act of Februarj^ 20, 1895, and established 
his headquarters at Durango in May. Later, as his personal 
views of the situation underwent a change which made it 
embarrassing for him to carry out the Department's instruc- 
tions, Thomas P. Smith, Assistant Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs, joined him at Durango and remained there, or in 
the neighborhood, until the whole business was well on 
toward its conclusion. Mr. Kidd's fij"st task was the taking 
of the vote on the question of accepting the act. He re- 
corded the preferences of all who presented themselves 
and claimed a right to vote, including at first a number of 
Pah-Utes, or renegade Utes, who had been living in Utah^ 
but who, scenting some substantial advantage to be gained 
bj' joining their fellow tribesmen in Colorado at this 
juncture, had come in at the west end and asked to be en- 
rolled. Weeded of this element, which had to be excluded 
under the clause confining the vote to the Indians ''now" — 
that is, on the 20th of February — '• located or residing 
upon the reservation," the result reported to the Indian 
Bureau bj' Mr. Kidd is shown in the following figures: 

Male adults enrolled and entitled to vote 301 

Number voting in favor of accepting the act of 

Congress 153 

ISI" umber not so voting 148 

Ascertained majority in favor of accepting the act . 5 



19 

On this affirmative margin, narrow as it was, the Secre- 
tary felt that it was his duty to regard the act as accepted 
by the tribe and to proceed with the allotment of land in 
severalty to those Indians who might " elect and be con- 
sidered by him qualified." Those who "elected" to take 
allotments would make themselves known in response to 
the asking; the difficulty was to distinguish those who 
were "qualified." Some of the Moaches and Capotes had 
already made little beginnings in the arts of civilization. 
They had built rude houses and barns, cleared fields of the 
native sage-brush and planted and harvested crops there. 
A few of the women had learned to use a sewing-machine. 
Buckskin Charlie's old squaw had trained running vines — 
annuals at that, which would require the task of replant- 
ing every spring — to grow against his cabin. Charlie 
himself was taking kindly to farm machinery as a substi- 
tute for the more primitive hand tools, and showed not a 
little intelligence in managing it. The sales-book of the 
post-trader showed that his trade in table-dishes, and 
beds, and stoves, and white men's clothing, and accessor- 
ies of the civilized toilet, was steadily on the increase. 
Ideally, doubtless, it might be that the majority of the 
members of the eastern bands were not in a condition 
to be thrown wholly on their own resources for self-sup- 
port; but, practically, having had the crisis forced upon 
him after doing all he could to avert it, the Secretary had 
now to consider four facts : 

1. From the temper shown by Congress, the disposition 
of the people of Colorado, and the ability of the Senators 
from that State to block the progress of any local bill which 
did not satisfy their constituents, it was hopeless to look 
for legislation in the interest of the Moaches and Capotes. 

2. The law of February 20, 1895, specified six months as 
the period within which its main provisions were to be 
executed, and, although the duties imposed upon him by 
the act could not possibly be performed by August 20, it 
was plainly intended that they should be performed as 
soon as possible thereafter. 



20 

3. The Moaches and Capotes, owing to their estrange- 
ment from the Weemiuuches, would never go voluntarily to 
live among the latter. 

4. If the Moaches and Capotes were forced to go to live 
among the Weeminuches they would cut loose entirely 
from the civilization which they had begun in a crude way 
to cultivate, and the whole tribe would soon sink to the 
level of its least progressive element. 

In short, it was his opinion that the only hope for the 
future of any of these Indians lay in encouraging those 
who showed a disposition to help themselves, and trusting 
to the spur of necessity to do what precept, example, and 
even self-pride left undone. His view-, moreover, was in con- 
formity' with the spirit of the Dawes severalty act, under 
which the President, had he seen fit, might have ordered 
the allotment of lands to the Southern Utes without wait- 
ing for direct legislation ; and the Dawes act had been 
especially recognized by, and incorporated with, the 
Hunter act as finally' passed and approved in the closing 
lines of the first section. Indeed, if all the Moaches and 
Capotes had waited until the cession of the east end of 
the reservation was complete and then had applied, under 
the fourth section of the Dawes act, for allotments of the 
land on which they were settled, they would have been 
entitled to patents, no matter what might have been the 
opinion of the Secretary of the Interior as to their 
capacity- for self-support. 

I have gone thus fully over the allotment question at 
this point so as to make clear the obligation of the Secre- 
tary of the Interior to take precisely the course he did 
take ; for the air of Durango and its neighborhood, at the 
latest advices, was thick with denunciation of the Secre- 
tary, the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs, and everyone engaged or interested in the 
settlement of the Southern Ute question who had ventured 
to assert that the officers named had been guilt}' of no 
violation of law. All this violent irritation is easily ex- 
plained. A plan to drive back into barbarism a handful 



21 

of Indians who were struggling to do something for their 
own improvement had been defeated by the policy of the 
executive branch of the Government in executing the 
whole law, and not merely that part of it which would 
have been most profitable and satisfactory to the engineers 
of the scheme. They who had gone forth to shear had 
come back shorn, and it was a disappointing experience, 

THE INDIANS WARNED. 

In due course the Indians were notified that the time 
had come for enrolling all who wished allotments of land, 
and a day was appointed for those to present themselves 
at the agency. Commissioner Kidd, who had this matter 
in charge, was detained elsewhere by other business and 
deputized the agency clerk. Max A. Brachvogel, to conduct 
the enrollment. The agent, David F. Day, was in and out 
of the room where this work was going on, but took no 
part in it even as adviser; Mr. Kidd having been desig- 
nated the sole representative of the Interior Department, 
the agent did not feel justified in interfering in any 
manner. The clerk's duties being wholly delegated, and 
his instructions from Mr. Kidd not going beyond the mere 
taking of the record, there was no officer or employee of 
the Government at hand prepared to assume responsibility 
for acquainting the assembled Indians with the full signi- 
ficance of the step they were about to take. This was 
unfortunate, for Mr. Kidd had informed me, a few days 
before, that he had not as yet explained to these Indians 
the serious side of the allotment question. Before the first 
stroke of the pen had been made, therefore, I rose and re- 
quested a stay of proceedings till I could make a state- 
ment. I then proceeded to go over the whole subject as 
fully and as plainly as my command of words would 
permit. I warned the Indians that this was not a question 
of simply taking up land, but that, under the severalty 
law. everyone who took land would become by that act 
an American citizen ; that citizenship meant the dissolu- 
tion of tribal government and the subjection of all to the 



law of the State of Colorado ; that the only thing the 
Governmeut of the United States could do for them 
thereafter was to give them such money and supplies as 
it was bound b}' treaty to give, to aid them with advice 
and instruction in learning agriculture, and to hold their 
land in trust for a term of years so that it would be free 
from taxation; that when an Indian murdered or assaulted 
anyone, burned houses or committed theft, was drunk and 
disorderly, or in any other way rendered himself liable to 
punishment under the white man's laws, no agent could 
protect him from the sheriff or the police, but that he 
would have to be tried and suffer like the white law- 
breaker ; that if an Indian trespassed on a white man's 
land the white man could sue him and recover money to 
pay for whatever damage had been done. I reminded 
them that the Indian's ways were very different from the 
white man's ways ; and that many things which were now 
treated as of no consequence because done by an Indian 
on a reservation, would become serious offences as soon as 
the reservation had been thrown open and the Indian had 
made himself a citizen and thus placed himself on the 
same footing with the white man before the law. The 
white man, I added, had to work hard to make a living, 
because the Government could not help him ; and the 
Indian would find that he would have to do the same 
thing, in spite of such aid as the Government might give 
him. If he became a citizen he would be expected to 
send his children to school, so as to fit them better to 
compete with the white man and to do business in the 
white man's way. 

There was more to the same general effect, but I have 
cited enough to show into what line I tried to direct the 
thoughts of my audience. Every possible objection to 
citizenship, from the Indian's point of view, I endeavored 
to set forth with the greatest clearness; for I was resolved 
that no Indian within reach of my voice should ever after- 
ward have a right to say that he had taken an allotment 
of land in ignorance of the consequences of his act. I 



23 

spoke in English, and John Taylor, the agency interpreter, 
translated my remarks into the Ute tongue. Buckskin 
Charlie, chief of the Moaches; Severo, chief of the Capotes, 
and a large number of their followers of both sexes were 
present. Several of these Indians, to my knowledge, 
understood simple English, though unable to use it with 
any fluency themselves. If the interpreter had not made 
my meaning plain, therefore, they would promptly have 
discovered it. I had still another safeguard against mis- 
understanding, in the fact that the Indians listened closely 
and asked a number of intelligent questions concerning 
points I had made. Two examples of these will suffice. 
Buckskin Charlie said : " There is one matter I should like 
made plainer. You have said that, while the Government 
has control of our land, we cannot be taxed on it ; yet you 
say that we shall be citizens like the white people, and 
they are taxed by the State. Will not the State tax us at 
all?" 

I answered : ''You have asked me a hard question. 
The law of 1880, under which the present law says that 
your allotments shall be made, declares distinctly that 
your lands and personal property shall not be subject to 
taxation during a given period. I am not learned enough 
to tell you whether such a law could be carried out. My 
own opinion is that it could not. I believe that, if the 
State of Colorado should make a law to tax horses and 
wagons, goats and dogs, for example, you would have to 
pay such a tax, and that such things as those could be 
seized by the sheriff and sold to raise the money if you 
neglected to pay it. However, that is something which 
the white men's courts would have to settle. My only 
object in speaking to-day is to warn you of the worst you 
may have to expect." 

Another question was: "When you say that the Gov- 
ernment will not be able to do so much for us as hereto- 
fore, do you mean that the agency will be taken away 
from us ? " 

I answered : " I am not here to make promises for the 



24 

Government, for I am not an officer of the Government. 
All I can do is to repeat what the Commissioner of Indian 
Affairs said to me when I talked witli him in Washington 
a few days ago. He said: 'The Secretary of the Interior 
wants to do all he can for the Southern Utes to make them 
comfortable and happy, and I want to do the same. We 
shall not neglect those who take allotments ; but we shall 
establish a sub-agency among them, and see that they 
have a good school, and a farmer to teach them how to 
work their land, and whatever else we are able to give 
them to help make them good and useful people. We 
want them to know how friendly we feel toward them, so 
that they will not fear that they are going to be left alone 
and helpless.' That is all I can say on that point. It was 
just a talk betv/een the Commissioner and myself I have 
no authority from the Government at Washington to 
make you any promises whatever, and when another 
Secretary and another Commissioner come by-and-by I do 
not know how they will feel or what they will say." 

When all the Indians who had anything to ask had 
signified their satisfaction, Buckskin Charlie announced 
his readiness to sign the allotment roll and the regular 
work of registration began. The tedious habits of the 
Indians caused this business to extend through several 
days, but at its conclusion 358 names were recorded. The 
formality in each case was the same. An Indian would 
present himself; his name and age would be looked up on 
the census roll ; he would state that he wished to take an 
allotment of land ; the clerk would enter his signature, 
and the Indian would touch the handle of the pen during 
the process. Where minor children were concerned, the 
head of the family would recite their names and ages and 
touch the pen in their interest as well as his own. 

IRRECONCILABLE TESTIMONY. 
It would have been far easier to reach some satisfactory 
solution of the Southern Ute problem if the leading advo- 
cates of successive schemes had not sliifted their ground 



25 

at every new stage of the agitation. Such changes 
neither facilitate discussion nor impress the observer with 
a sense of the sincerity of the disputant making them. 

Senator Wolcott, while urging the removal of the In- 
dians to Utah, in some remarks before the Senate Com- 
mittee on Indian AfJairs on February 12, 1894, said: 

The map shows the location of their present reserva- 
tion .... The snow lies deep in that reservation 
during the winter, and they cannot properly preserve 
their cattle there, nor is there any game left on the reser- 
vation. The result is that such cattle as the Indians have 
left they have been in the habit of driving to Utah, where 
there is a large tract of ground suitable for their pur- 
poses and which has not been settled to any extent by 
white men. It is verj^ important to them that they 
should be allowed to remove there and take with them 
such cattle as they have left, there to feed them, and to 
use the land for hunting grounds. 

Later, in response to an inquiry whether the Interior 
Department had recommended the Utah reservation, Mr. 
Wolcott said : 

During the administration of President Harrison Com- 
missioner Morgan recommended the removal of the In- 
dians to the proposed reservation. It was his belief that 
the Indians should be . . . Christianized, and their 
children gent to school. He believed that they should 
be put upon ground luhere there vjould be no inducements to 
the chase. 

The Senator made no attempt to reconcile his own desire 
for the removal of the Indians to a reservation where 
they could hunt, with Commissioner Morgan's recommen- 
dation for their removal to the same reservation so as to 
put them where they would have no inducement to hunt 
and could therefore be civilized. 

Equally uncertain seems to be the testimony of leading 
members of the Duraugo delegation to Washington as to 
the country on which the act of February 20, 1895, pro- 
poses to settle these Indians. Mr. Ada,ir Wilson, a promi- 
nent lawyer, was in Washington in the winter of 1894-95 
helping to pass the Hunter act, which proposes to spend 
twenty thousand dollars of the tribe's money in the pur- 



26 

chase of sheep to herd on their diminished reservation. 
Yet this same Mr. Wilson was in Washington early in 
1894, and then addressed the Senate Committee on Indian 
Aftairs, urging the removal of the Indians to Utah so that 
they would have a place where they could raise sheep. 
" They have tried it in their present reservation," said he, 
"and they know that it is uttei-bj impot^sihle to ■ succeed. 
All they can do on this reservation is to sit down and 
draw rations from the Government." And in response to 
Senator Wolcott's question, " Is it possible to make these 
Indians contented where they are?" he declared : "It is 
absolutely impossible; they will not stay." The transfor- 
mation here indicated, both in the character of the coun- 
try and the temper of the Indians, appears to have been 
accomplished in less than twelve months. 

Senator Teller, during the debate on the Hvinter bill, 
made three assertions concerning the eastern end of the 
present reservation which caused some confusion in the 
minds of those who listened to his speeches. To avoid the 
danger of trusting to memory for his words, I quote from 
the Coiu/ressional Record : 



The east end of the reservation, which is to be*cut off, is 
absolutely uninhabitable — an uninhabitable section. ^"^ * 
The eastern part has never been inhabited by the Indians 
at all. They have never lived there. . . . The 
eastern end of this reservation has never been inhabited 
by Indians, and it never will be inhabited by whites. 

II. 

Mr. Vilas. The Senator from Colorado cannot mean, I 
think, that the eastern end has not been inhabited by the 
Indians. 

Mk. Teller. I do not mean to say that the extreme east- 
ern end has never been inhabited hy tliem^ . . . I mean 
to say that the eastern twenty-five miles of this strip that is 
to be taken oft" has nfver been settled or occupied by Indians. 
Now, as to the land which they occupy, it is good land. 



27 



III. 



I did not say that the land there [on the east end of the 
reservation] was not good land; I did not say that it was 
not valuable land. 

In the same connection I cannot forbear quoting from 
two conversations which I held, within ten minutes of each 
other, in the city of Durango while I was there in June. 
I asked one intelligent citizen to explain to me why he 
and others were so opposed to a general allotment of lands 
among these Moaches and Capotes who Avanted them. 

•' Because," he answered, " we cannot settle up this 
country with the kind of white people we wane as long as 
these Indians hold lands here. They make the most un- 
desirable kind of neighbors." 

"In what respect ?" I inquired. 

" In every respect. Think, yourself, how you would feel 
if j'ou were settled next to an Indian's farm and your 
business called you away from home. How would you 
enjoy the prospect of coming back to find your house 
burned, your crops destroyed, your wife and daughters 
barbarously maltreated, and perhaps your little children 
murdered? Yet that is the risk a white farmer runs when 
he goes away leaving his household at the mercy of his 
Indian neighbor. You would not like it any better than 
we, if you lived here." 

With this dreadful picture still vividly before my mind's 
eye, I asked an old experienced ranchman with whom I 
talked next, what he thought of Indians as neighbors. 

''The Indian makes the best neighbor in the world," he 
replied with some warmth. "I have had these Ute In- 
dians for my next neighbors for seventeen years, and I 
never had a particle of trouble with them. I can give 
them a much better character for peacefulness and hon- 
esty than I could give many white men I've had to deal 
with in that time. My only reason for wanting the In- 
dians removed from the east end of the reservation is a 
consideration for their welfare. AYhere they are, if left 
to themselves, they will surely die out; if tKey are moved 



28 

over to the west end of the reservation, they can be made 
prosperous and happy." 

Between the prudential argument of one authority and 
the philanthropic argument of the other, it was hard for 
an outsider to know just how to interpret the local popu- 
lar bent. 

Again, one citizen having expatiated to me at some 
length on the wisdom of the report made by the Childs 
Commission, I drew his attention to the passage in that 
report which says frankly that " this reservation, traversed 
as it is by the following rivers, to wit: the N.ivajo, San 
Jnan, Blanco, Pine, Florida. .Vnimas. LaPlara and Mancos, 
besides other smaller streams, and containing about 350,- 
000 acres of rich farming land, which can be irrigated from 
the above rivers at but little expense, is . . . essential 
to the prosperity and development of this part of Colo- 
rado," etc. He listened impatientlj-, and exclaimed : 
" What nonsense ! In the first place, the acreage of avail- 
able land is far overestimated. In the second place, 
nobody about here cares a fig for the farming land ; what 
Durango wants to get at is the coal lands, which the 
Indians are occupying and keeping out of the way of de- 
velopment. It is a dog-in-the-manger policy to let them 
stay there and prevent the opening up of these deposits." 

On mj^ remarking to tiie next citizen I met that I had 
at length discovered a commercial basis for Durango's in- 
terest in saving the Indians from the sad fate of staying 
where they are, he assented readily: 

"Oh, yes; we want the country settled up." 

"AVith white coal-miners," I suggested. 

" Who said an^'tliing about coal?" he asked, with some 
asperity of manner. " There is not a man with an oimce 
of common sense who would take a coal claim on that 
reservation as a free gift. Coal property is a dead drug 
in this country. You can't give it away without throwing 
in something to boot." 

These brief excerpts, unimportant in themselves, by 
their collation serve to show the difficulties against which 



29 

one must struggle in an effort to discover the motives un- 
derlying the anti-Ute agitation in Southwestern Colorado. 
Having conversed freely with members of all parties and 
factions, and the representatives of all trades and profes- 
sions, the only conclusion I could reach was that there 
was no common motive. One set of men wished to move 
the Utes so as to open the agricultural lands on the east 
end of the reservation ; others, so as to develop the coal 
deposits; others, so as to procure railroad rights of way ; 
others, so as to get at the water in the rivers at the most 
convenient level for irrigating enterprises ; others, because 
the presence of the Indians in the neighborhood was a 
cause of constant nervous tremor ; and others, in the hope 
of an influx of white " boomers " who would revive Du- 
rango's decadent trade, at least for a time. Last, but per- 
haps most important of all, stood a group of gentlemen 
who had 

SOMETHING TO SELL TO THE GOVEENMENT. 

To understand this phase of the subject requires the 
statement of a few facts not hitherto noticed. Of the 
rivers which water the Soutliern Ute reservation, all except 
the Mancos are confined to the east end, which it is pro- 
posed to throw open to white settlement. The Mancos is 
a poor apology for a river, which runs dry when most 
needed. The whole reservation lies in the arid belt, where 
artificial irrigation is necessary to any kind of agriculture. 
In the east end of the reservation the altitudes above sea 
level range between six and eight thousand feet, limiting 
the possible variety of crops; but having the advantage of 
abundant water, if properly husbanded, for domestic and 
irrigation purposes. The west end, on the contrary, con- 
tains about 130,000 acres of excellent land at altitudes 
ranging from 4,750 to 5,600, and therefore adapted to all 
sorts of agriculture, but now a desert waste, apparently 
irredeemable except by bringing water into it from outside 
through artificial channels. The few local springs which 
the Weeminuches use for their family supplies and for 



30 

watering their ponies are insignificant, measured by the 
standard of any greater requirement. The Dolores river, 
however, is a well-fed stream which runs for about forty 
miles through Montezuma county, the county adjoining 
the diminished reservation on the north. 

Some years ago two corporations were organized for the 
purpose of tapping this river, irrigating the farming 
country thereabout, and selling land, with water privileges, 
to settlers who might be attracted by their enterprise. 
The companies laid out their work on a generous scale, 
spent a good deal more money than the immediate returns, 
would warrant, and were both absorbed b}' a successor,, 
the Colorado Consolidated Land and Water Company. 
This concern, in its turn, presently found itself in a state 
of collapse. The expected influx of ranch-seekers had not 
followed its outlay; and the rents for water privileges 
which had been expected to pay fixed charges, running 
expenses and a dividend, were consequentlj^ not forthcom- 
ing. John V. Farwell, of Chicago, who had interested 
himself in the enterprise to the extent of inducing a. 
number of English capitalists to invest in it, felt in honor 
bound to make good the guaranties he had given his 
friends, and when the property and franchises of the Con- 
solidated Company were sold under the sheriff 's hammer in 
1892 for non-payment of taxes, he bid them in. Since then 
he has carried the burden substantially alone, paying from 
his own pocket the taxes annually levied upon this com- 
pany and another — the Montezuma Valley Irrigation Com- 
pany — organized last year for the purpose of absorbing 
the Consolidated; for the rentals have been onlj^ sufficient 
to pay the expenses of service and repairs. The tax-debtor 
in such a case has an equity of redemption for three 
years, and the equity in this instance will expire next 
month; but the president of a leading bank in Durango. 
which has handled a large quantity of the latest company's 
securities, and is therefore interested in putting it upon its 
feet, asserts that the tax sale at which Mr. Farwell was 
the successful bidder can be set aside, because growing out 



31 

■Df an assessment teclmically invalid. At present, Mr. 
Farwell and the other creditors of the company seem to 
be united in purpose, it being for the advantage of all that 
the irrigation company should overcome its difficulties; 
but should he take any step for his own protection adverse 
to the company's interests, such as demanding a flual tax- 
title deed and acting under it, there would probably be a 
struggle in the courts. 

The leading men representing the company in various 
capacities are desirous of having all the Southern Utes 
settled on the diminished reservation and there supplying 
them with water. The irrigating ditches already con- 
structed and in operation bring the water down almost to 
the northern border of the* reservation, and their plea is 
that from that point onward the necessary ditches could 
be made at comparatively small cost and the water rented 
from the company at a fixed yearly rate. The company 
stands ready, they say, to give satisfactory bonds for any 
contract it ma}" enter into with the Government. What 
Congress may decide to do in this line for the six or 
seven hundred Indians who are hereafter to occupy the 
diminished reservation, will not be known for several 
mouths yet. In view, however, of the number of defalca- 
tions of well-bonded public officers in Durango and its 
neighborhood during the last few years, it would be wise 
to exercise extreme caution. Conditions are possible under 
which it might be worth more to the conductors of a busi- 
ness enterprise to sacrifice their bonds than to fulfill a 
contract which proved unexpectedly unprofitable. More- 
over, if the companj^ is really as confident as it appears to 
be that the arrangement it proposes will inure to the 
mutual benefit of itself and the Government, it would 
surely be willing to prove its faith by its works — run 
ditches independently through the reservation and fill 
them with water, so as to show that it is capable of doing 
all it assumes to — and then contract with the Government. 
The only difierence between the two plans is that, under 
the latter, it is the Government which would be secure and 



32 

the company which would have to take the risks. The 
novelty of the idea of protecting the Government rather 
than the contractor might make the plan I suggest 
obnoxious to some of the parties in interest, but that would 
scarcely be accepted by the public at large as a conclusive 
argument against it. 

Some alternative suggestions have been advanced, look- 
ing to the same end of supplying this region with water. 
These were considered at a time when the probability of 
the removal of the Southern Utes to Utah gave a specu- 
lative interest to the question, how the land could be irri- 
gated for the white settlers who would presently pour in. 
One idea was to make reservoirs at the foot of Ute Peak^ 
to catch the water which came down the ravines from 
melting snows in the spring. Another was to dam the 
canyon of the Mancos, and store the waters of the river 
each season before it ran dry. Practical men who have 
looked the ground over have discredited both plans. Still 
a third project, involving an uncertain expense which it is 
feared Congress would be unwilling to undertake, is ta 
bore two or more artesian wells at convenient points, from 
which it would be reasonable to expect a never-failing 
supply. 

The Secretarj' of the Interior will have to make a very 
thorough study of the irrigation problem on all parts of 
the present reservation. The impossibility of ever winning 
the Weeminuches over to an agricultural life without the 
water supply which offers the only hope of redeeming their 
arid desert, makes it necessary that the new diminished 
reservation should be furnished with abundant means of 
irrigation; and on the east end of the present re.servation, 
where the Moaches and Capotes will be settled in severalty, 
every precaution must be taken to insure to these Indians 
the fullest protection and privileges allowed them by law. 
Riparian rights are regulated by Colorado statutes, under 
which individual proprietors file claims for running ditches 
that will carry certain amounts of water out of the rivers. 
These claims are adjudicated and patents issued on them 



33 

in the order in which they are "proved up." It behooves 
the Department of the Interior, therefore, to be forehanded 
with its work of filing claims in behalf of the Indian pro- 
prietors who will hcive possession of so much land in sever- 
alty with the opening of the east end of the reservation. 
It may be necessarj^, however, for Congress to acquire 
some land now owned by whites to the north of the re- 
servation in order to get at the most available source of 
supply for some of the ditches run in the Indians' behalf. 

LOCAL POPULAR FEELING. 

Discussing these matters with a leading lawyer of Du- 
rango who has been a conspicuous figure in the Southern 
IJte negotiations, I suggested to him the possibility that a 
considerable appropriation would be needed next session 
to pay for necessary improvements, and that I hoped to 
see the Colorado delegation in Congress a unit in pressing 
this legislation. He answered that, if things had gone as 
the people of Durango had expected they would when the 
Ute bill passed, there would have been no trouble; as it 
was, he was unprepared to say, for public feeling there- 
about was very bitter against the National Administration, 
which was regarded as having acted in bad faith. I then 
went over all the salient points in the law, and asked him 
to point out a single one which the Secretary of the Interior 
had transgressed. As he was not able to, I inquired whether 
it would not be more patriotic and sensible for the Colo- 
rado delegation to forego the luxury of lamenting a situa- 
tion which it \yas powerless to change and devote its ener- 
gies to procuring an appropriation large enough to do all 
the necessar}' work in the most satisfactory manner. He 
answered in a guarded way that the people of Durango 
had great faith in Senator Teller's sagacity, and that 
whatever policy the Senator decided to pursue would be 
satisfactory to them — a reversal of the theory so generally 
held in other parts of the country that a member of Con- 
gress represents his constituency instead of governing it. 

The spirit manifested by this lawyer, who is one of the 



34 

ablest and most intelligent men in Durango, appears to be 
only t^'pical of the spirit animating all his fellow citiz<;ns 
at the present stage of the Southern Ute business. The 
ruling desire seems to be to "get even " with everyone in- 
terested in the execution of the law, rather than to make 
the best of an unsatisfactory matter. One would suppose 
that, as the law authorized the settlement of Indians in 
severalty on the east end of the present reservation, and 
the number thus settled promised to be large, the part of 
wisdom would be to make ever^-thing as easy as possible 
for the officers of the United States Government who are 
charged with the duty of educating these Indians in the 
arts of civilization. If the work of education is a success, 
the whole white population of Southwestern Colorado will 
profit by the improvement in the condition of their Indian 
neighbors and fellow citizens. But if, on the other hand, 
as is claimed by the white people of Durango, allotment 
is a perilous experiment at best, and as applied to theUtes 
is bound to prove a failure, it is hard to see why every en- 
couragement and facility is not afforded locally, so that the 
failure, when it comes, will be monumental, and the 
prophets of evil can point to it and sa}^ : •' Here is the 
result of your experiment made under the most auspicious 
possible conditions." If the Colorado people fail to give 
the Government such a measure of support, it will indi- 
cate that they lack faith in their own logic and are simply 
determined that their prediction of failure shall be ful- 
filled, no matter at what cost. 

Of a piece with the rest of the tactics pursued is the war 
made upon David F. Day, the agent for the Southern 
Utes, in retaliation for the stand he took in behalf of the 
rights of the Indians and for carrying the policy of his 
superior officers into execution. Every effort has been made 
to oust him from his office and make even his residence 
in Durango too uncomfortable for endurance. Mr. Day 
has been a citizen of Durango for several years, and for a 
long time before that lived at Ouray, which is near enough 
to Durango to enable every prominent member of the one 



35 

community to know every prominent member of the other, 
at least by reputation. It would be absurd for any busi- 
ness man of Durango, therefore, to plead ignorance of 
the character of the agent at the time of the latter's appoint- 
ment ; yet on Day's official bond are the names of the lead- 
ing business men of Durango. Clever men pledge their 
fortunes and their honor in this way only on one of two 
conditions : tliej^ either have faith in the capacity and up- 
rightness of the beneficiary, or they believe that they will 
be able to use him to some end so profitable as to pay them 
well for taking the risk. In the present instance it is im- 
material to inquire which of these purposes moved the 
bondsmen to proffer their service to the agent-elect. It 
suffices that, with their eyes open and of their own accord, 
they made themselves responsible for his good conduct in 
office. In courtesy we are bound to give them the benefit 
of any doubt, and assume primarily that they testified to 
Day's ability and honesty in good faith; and then arise^ 
the question, why they should have turned upon him and 
denounced him as a malefactor as soon as he showed his 
loyalty to the Government whose servant he had become, 
and to the ludians he had pledged himself to protect? If we 
should shift our point of view and assume that the agent's 
bondsmen helped him into his present position, not be- 
cause they believed he would be faithful to his sworn trust, 
but because they were planning to use him for the further- 
ance of designs of their own. we should be obliged to at- 
tribute their change of attitude to disappointment; and to 
honest men's minds this would certainly be an argument 
in the agent's favor. 

Apart from the open warfare upon Day, there has been 
maintained a systematic course of petty annoyance, per- 
fectly obvious to any intelligent observer on the ground, 
however difficult of technical proof. Until within a few 
months it has been the practice of Chief Ignacio and other 
Weeminuche leaders to go over to the agency at certain 
stated periods for their supplies, but all at once they 
ceased doing this. From some source, presumptively 



36 

white and necessarily unofficial, these men had received 
an intimation that if they stayed at home they could force 
the agent to come over to them. This is precisely the 
policy which would naturally be urged upon them by out- 
side parties interested in hastening the removal of all the 
Indians, and the agency with them, to the diminished 
reservation in the Weeminuche country; aud it was 
worthy of note, even if only as a coincidence, that the 
argument used by the whites in Durango to convince me 
that Ignacio and his lieutenants were doing right, took 
this general form : 

a. Ignacio is the good friend of the white people, stand- 
ing between them and the rebellious spirits in his tribe, 
and hence has a right to demand every consideration for 
his convenience and comfort. 

h. The act of 1895 calls for the retention of enough land 
on the diminished reservation to furnisli a site for the 
necessary agency buildings ; and this is in the nature of a 
pledge by the Government that the agency shall be re- 
moved to the diminished reservation, where it would be 
much easier for Ignacio and his band to draw their sup- 
plies. 

c. The agent and the agency employes would find it 
more agreeable not to make this change, as their present 
quarters are pleasanter than the new ones would be ; 
hence their disposition is to delay removal as long as pos- 
sible. 

d. Ignacio is therefore justified in keeping away from 
the agency and putting the Government to such expense 
in conveying the supplies to him and his band that in self- 
defence it will hasten the removal of the agency accord- 
ing to the promise held out by the act of 1895. 

To a mind not saturated with a sense of Iguacio's 
superiority to the Government of the United States, it 
appears as if the argument might be stated better thus: 

a. Until the new surveys are made, the lands taken up 
by the allottees set apart for them, aud the remnant of the 
tribe removed from the east end of the present reserva- 



37 

tiou to the new diminished reservation, there is no prom- 
ise, express or implied, of the removal of the agency. 

b. Until such removal, it is the business of Ignacio and 
his band, if they want their share of the supplies fur- 
nished by the Government, to go for them to the agency 
as the other Indians do. 

c. If they do not see fit to take this trouble, they may 
go without their supplies. 

Nothing could be further from the intent of this report 
than to approve of any violation of its obligations by the 
Government, however indirect, or of any unnecessary 
harshness in the performance of those obligations. But 
the practice of letting an unprogressive and civilization- 
hating old chief trade upon his influence over the warlike 
spirits in his following, and bully the Indian Bureau into 
needless trouble and expense as the price of maintaining 
a state of peace, is demoralizing to the Indians con- 
cerned and in derogation of the dignity of the Govern- 
ment ; and against it every good citizen is bound to pro- 
test. 

WHAT WILL CONGRESS DO? 

This report is already longer than I intended to make it, 
but in looking back over what I have written I can find 
little which could be omitted without robbing the rest of 
at least an important side-light of interpretation. I have 
endeavored to make it historically accurate, and for that 
reason prefer not to mar its general character by any am- 
bitious attempt at a forecast of coming events. From sev- 
eral unauthoritative sources I have received warnings that 
last summer's operations in the Southern Ute country 
would be made the subject of an investigation by one or 
the other House of Congress. I sincerely hope this is 
true, provided the inquiry be so thorough as to bring out 
not merely part of the facts, but all. The whole matter 
can thus be sifted, and the evidence spread upon the pub- 
lic records. If it be true, however, as further rumored, 
that an effort will be made to induce Congress to reverse 



38 

and annul the action of the executive branch of the Gov- 
ei'nuient because too many Indians have been permitted 
to take hinds in severalty, the Senators from Colorado 
must surely oppose the movement. It would be an insult 
to their good laith which they could not afford to brook, 
even from constituents suffering from undue excitement. 

Senator Wolcott, for example, in debate with Senator 
Vilas on Januarj' 18, 1895, about the freedom of the Indians 
to take laud in severalty, said: 

"I asked the Senator from Wisconsin, do you wish to 
compel them to take it whether they want it or not?" 

"No," answered Mr. Vilas. 

"Then," said Mr. Wolcott, "what is the objection to 
letting the Secretar'y of the Interior j^ans upon their Jitness to 
take itV 

Again, in the course of the same debate, Mr. Wolcott de- 
clared: 

I am sure I am read;/ to tri(i<t a. Secretary of the Interior 
to determine as to whether the Indian should have an allot- 
ment of lands. He is not deprived of it if he does not 
take it. 

Mr. Teller, on June 17, 189-1:, answered a question from 
Senator White, whether the Indians would be forced to go 
upon their new reservation, in these words: 

They will not be forced on it. Those tcho choose to remain 
under this proposed act can take their lands in severalty and 
remain where they are. 

And again, in debate with Senator Vilas, on January 
28, 1895: 

All the Indians may stay on the east end of the reserva- 
tion if they choose to select their land there. . . . 

There is land enough there [on the diminished reserva- 
tion] to make every one of these Indians a good home. / 
do not supjjose that very many of them ivould take homes there. 
If they desire to take homes on the east end of the reservation, 
they are permitted to do so under this bill . 

Every Indian may stay on any acre of t/uit country that he 
chooses under this proposed law. 

But the crowning stroke of all, as indicating Senator 
Teller'sapproval in advance of the course which the Secre- 



39 

tary later followed, occurs in the following passage in the 
same debate: 

Mr. Vilas. The only law which specifies any qualifica- 
tions of the Indians to take allotments is this very act it- 
self, and I should like the Senator to say what it means. 
What is to be the direction of the Secretar^^ of the Interior 
by which he is to determine the qualifications? 

Mr. Teller. I do not know. That is left to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior, and he will determine, I suppose, if the 
Indians want to stay there, that they a,re qualified to remain. 
I have no doubt he will so determine. He can make no 
distinction betiveen them.. 

To refuse now to carry out, in letter and spirit, the latest 
agreement with the Southern Utes, after having kept them 
for seven years in a state of continual unrest, would be a 
verj'^ serious matter. It is hard to believe that the resi- 
dents of Southwestern Colorado, which Avould be the scene 
of any trouble that might break out as a consequence of 
further fast-and-loose methods in our dealings with these 
Indians, would urge such a course upon Congress. But as 
there are rash men in every community, it is reassuring 
to find in the official record such frank declarations as I 
have quoted from both the Colorado Senators, and 
especially an assertion from Senator Teller that the 
course pursued by the Secretary of the Interior last 
summer is the only practicable one. It now remains to 
be seen how far Mr. Teller will contribute his powerful 
assistance toward the further legislation needed to make 
a thorough success of the policy which he mapped out for 
the Secretary. 

As I close this report, a commission of three is engaged 
in alloting lands in severalty on the east end of the reser- 
vation to those Indians who have signed the allotment- 
roll. Julius Schuetze of Austin, Texas, is chairman of 
the commission, Agent Day and Mr. Kidd filling the other 
two places respectively. The number of allotments will 
be between three and four hundred. 

Washington, D. C, September 30, 1895. 



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